#street-art

#street-art

If you've walked around any of France's cosmopolitan cities in recent years, you're sure to have come across some stunning murals. Painted onto the side of buildings, in hidden corners, and just about anywhere an artist can paint, street art is booming. We're not talking old-school graffiti here, hastily sprayed names on walls, and anti-social stuff like that. Today's street art is commissioned by city or town councils and created by prominent street artists from around the globe says Suzanne Pearson.

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The small artworks are the calling cards of San Francisco artist DraINvader, who's on a mission to cover sewer drain holes with something worth noticing. "The idea is, every piece solves a real problem while adding something beautiful," he said. For the past several months, DraINvader has been steadily installing his pieces on city sidewalks. Each customized square plate features a 3-D printed image, such as a butterfly, a Day of the Dead skull or Star Wars' R2-D2.

Outside an abandoned building in New Zealand's second-biggest city, a sign reads slightly haunted but manageable. In the middle of a busy shopping strip, pedestrians are warned to keep to a 2.83km/h walking speed. In another part of the Christchurch, one piece of signage declares simply don't. The baffling boards are not an overzealous new council initiative, but a piece of art designed to play with the way we take authority and signage so seriously.

The result is four watches that look like someone ripped pieces of graffiti-covered urban architecture and strapped them to your wrist. Designer: Hublot The idea sounds absurd until you see the execution. The cracks in the surface aren't flaws. They're designed that way, filled with glow-in-the-dark paint that shifts color depending on whether you're standing in daylight, darkness, or under the ultraviolet lights of a nightclub. One watch becomes three different visual experiences depending on where you take it.

Outside an entrance to the Second Avenue subway station in Manhattan's East Village, commuters and passersby are confronted with an artwork portraying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detaining the Statue of Liberty. Longtime New York City street artist Doug Groupp, who uses the moniker Clown Soldier, created "Attack on Liberty" on November 26. The black and white spray-painted work binds immigration crackdowns to an erosion of civil liberties more broadly.

John grew up in midtown Toronto where he spent hours exploring murals, sketching buildings and learning the stories behind neighbourhood landmarks. He was the kind of teenager who noticed new posters on lampposts before anyone else. His early love for urban culture eventually guided him toward studying Communications and City Studies at the University of Toronto. He often reflects on this time.

Our cities are full of grey tower blocks built for efficiency rather than aesthetics. Public benches are made of cheap concrete, pavements are falling apart, old structures are left derelict. Amid this backdrop of unloved, muted ugliness, a new wave of guerrilla mosaicists are enlivening their cities with beautiful, colourful designs. These artists rarely get official sign-off for their work.

A few blocks east of downtown, on Santa Clara Street in the masterfully rebranded East Village, I stop at Writers Bench, a small art space that speaks authentically San José. A rack of spray colorful paints, a case full of stickers, a t-shirt rack and a gleaming purple low rider bicycle surround a chessboard, set up and ready to play, in the middle of the narrow storefront.

The political drama continues unabated with a new prime minister (sort of), a new government which may or may not survive the week and a big climb-down from Emmanuel Macron. The Talking France podcast is available on Spotify or Apple. You can download it here or listen on the link below But the constant rollercoaster that makes up French politics at the moment is leading an increasing number of people to ask whether France's political system is fit for purpose.

In the village is a collection of 13 buildings that were previously used as a training centre for France Télecom. When the centre closed, they were bought by a local couple who created Street Art City, the world's only street art theme park. The collection of old buildings now forms an extraordinary canvas - 22,000 square metres, entirely covered in street art.

For more than two decades, French street artist Invader-born Franck Slama-has turned city streets into digital landscapes, reimagining the urban environment as a living arcade. His iconic 8-bit mosaics have quietly infiltrated skylines and alleyways in over 79 cities across 20 countries, transforming the familiar into something playful, subversive, and undeniably his. Now, in an unexpected yet fitting next move, Invader is bringing his unmistakable pixel art to the heart of Music City with his first-ever Nashville "invasion."

Street art thrives on scale, spontaneity, and public interaction, but two of its most recognized names, Francesco Camillo Giorgino (known as Millo) and Julien Malland (better known as Seth Globepainter), are proving that its magic can be just as powerful indoors. Together, the pair has launched Beyond, a collaborative exhibition that brings their mural practices into a gallery setting while maintaining the playful, immersive qualities that made them global icons in the first place.